Who’s Really at Fault?

After the devastation from Hurricane Katrina has begun to come under control, hundreds have begun playing the blame game. “Bush didn’t do this.” “The National Guard didn’t do that.” “The Federal government should’ve responded quicker.” But oh, we can’t possibly cast any blame on the Mayor of the Big Easy or the Lousiana governor. Everyone knows that Bush caused the whole hurricane in the first place.

I received a forwarded email with an article from some reporter in Florida. Who knows if it actually is from a reporter who’s been “researching what went on before the storm hit”, but the author makes quite a few excellent points nonetheless. Take a look.

I think all of Mayor Nagin’s pomp and posturing is going to bite him hard in the near future as the lies and distortions of his interviews are coming to
light. (Mayor Nagin claimed when the National guard arrived, the men were sitting
around playing cards and would not respond to his pleas for help in evacuation.)

On Friday night before the storm hit Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane
Center took the unprecedented action of calling Nagin and Blanco personally
to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of New Orleans and they
said they’d take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA buoy 240 miles
south had recorded 68′ waves before it was destroyed.

President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his
advisors and administrators drafting all of the paperwork required for a
state to request federal assistance (and not be in violation of the Posse
Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act). Just before midnight
Friday evening the President called Governor Blanco and pleaded with her to
sign the request papers so the federal government and the military could
legally begin mobilization and call up. He was told that they didn’t think
it necessary for the federal government to be involved yet. After the
President’s final call to the governor she held meetings with her staff to
discuss the political ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was
decided that if they allowed federal assistance it would make it look as if
they had failed so it was agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.

Saturday before the storm hit the President again called Blanco and Nagin
requesting they please sign the papers requesting federal assistance, that
they declare the state an emergency area, and begin mandatory evacuation.
After a personal plea from the President Nagin agreed to order an
evacuation, but it would not be a full mandatory evacuation, and the
governor still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal
action. In frustration the President declared the area a national disaster
area before the state of Louisiana did so he could legally begin some
advanced preparations. Rumor has it that the President’s legal advisers were
looking into the ramifications of using the insurgency act to bypass the
Constitutional requirement that a state request federal aid before the
federal government can move into state with troops - but that had not been
done since 1906 and the Constitutionality of it was called into question to
use before the disaster.

Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past decade to New Orleans for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the gambling ships. Toss in the investigation that will look into why the emergency preparedness plan submitted to the federal government for funding and published on the city’s website was never implemented and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of gaining additional federal funding as we now learn that the organizations identified in the plan were never contacted or coordinating into any planning - though the document implies that they were.

The suffering people of New Orleans need to be asking some hard questions
as do we all, but they better start with why Blanco refused to even sign the
multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents until Wednesday which
further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard from adjoining
states. Or maybe ask why Nagin keeps harping that the President should have
commandeered 500 Greyhound busses to help him when according to his own
emergency plan and documents he claimed to have over 500 busses at his
disposal to use between the local school busses and the city transportation
busses - but he never raised a finger to prepare them or activate them.

This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major city has all but been
destroyed and thousands of people have died with hundreds of thousands more
suffering, but it’s certainly not a time for people to be pointing fingers
and trying to find a bigger dog to blame for local corruption and
incompetence. Pray to God for the survivors that they can start their lives
anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the mistakes to avoid them in
the future.

An excellent article, don’t you think?

In Him,

D3

Postedin Uncategorized at 1:37 am on 09.11.05 by David S. MacMillan III